Name
Sacred Fires, Not Fire Pits: Environmental Repossession Through Traditional Healing Spaces in Canada's Largest Mental Health Hospital
Date & Time
Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Description
For millennia, Indigenous peoples have maintained health and wellness through sophisticated systems of land-based medicine and ceremony, where healing emerges through interconnected relationships between people, land, spirit, and Ancestors. Colonial processes of environmental dispossession systematically uprooted these traditional healing practices, replacing them with institutional healthcare settings and Western biomedicine that often fail to meet Indigenous peoples' wholistic health needs. This study examines the transformation of place through the implementation of Traditional Healing Spaces (THS) within Canada's largest mental health hospital, investigating how these spaces function as mechanisms of Indigenous reclamation and cultural revitalization. Drawing from Indigenous health geography and environmental repossession (ER) theory, the research explores how THS enable Indigenous healing practices through the strategic creation of proxies for land within institutional settings. Through a qualitative case study at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, this research employed an Indigenous Research Paradigm to conduct 22 semi-structured interviews and autoethnographic methods examining three distinct THS. Findings reveal how these spaces enable vital opportunities for Indigenous knowledge transmission and relationship-building within a hospital. Results demonstrate that successful transformation of space requires deep integration of Indigenous knowledge, while advancing theoretical understanding of ER within institutional contexts. This research provides a practical framework for healthcare institutions seeking to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action through the recreation of land-based healing practices.
Location Name
Nicol (NI) 3020
Session Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract ID
121
Speaker Name
Vanessa Ambtman-Smith
Speaker Organization
Western University
Session Name
CS157 Indigenous Knowledges and Knowledge Systems